God Does Want Me To Fly.............

Because he gave me Wings!

It's all sweeter with my own gear now, it finally came in. My very first rig.

Custom Wings container
Sabre 2 - 210 main canopy
PD 193 reserve canopy
Cypress AAD (in case I have a very, very bad day)

The container was the last component that I was waiting for the longest, however, it was totally worth the wait. Getting a Wings container built just for me was a smart move. Although the rig is heavy, it is completely comfortable not to mention I think it looks awesome. I am gonna keep this one for a long time for sure.

I had a bunch of cool jumps this weekend. I jumped mostly 4 way formations and one five way but clearly the highlight of the day was my first hybrid. We built a four person base with me, Aki, Dawn, and Kari. After we launched the base, Hatch and Lane came in and took chest straps and punched a stand under us. I had no idea how much that would accelerate the base but boy did we start screaming down. Hatch and Lane touched feet under us and all was good until Hatch somehow got light and pretty much inverted the whole thing sending most of us tumbling. Glad I got that one on tape!

Today was my first solo high pull from 10,500 which was awesome. We took the Otter to about 13,500 ft for the jump run, and the rest of the groups began to get out leaving me last in the plane. I had a great diving exit and a few seconds of free fall before pitching my hackey just under 11,000 ft. I was in the saddle shortly there after, and simply flew around the farms and roads around the DZ for the next 15 minutes or so. Too bad it was kinda hazy because I really could not see much in the distance. You can usually see downtown from altitude but not today. Being up that high is truly addicting and I completely see why Larry always makes his first of the day a high pull from altitude. It's just you and your canopy exploring the blue sky. I went almost a good two miles from the DZ to 288 before making my way back. Catch a thermal.....drift up and grab the risers for the ride. This jump really gave me a chance to explore everything about my canopy and even an opportunity to try some aggressive turns to spiral down. I kept thinking while I was flying down this is so peaceful and it is such a shame that it was my first super long canopy flight. I have got to do more of those.

Oh, and more burble hops!

The Sabre 2 - 210 flys exactly like I expected. This was my first canopy downsize from the student gear, but I was more than ready for this next step. Every opening was soft and on heading - nothing unpredictable so far. It has tons of flare and very predictable dives in a turn and surprisingly is not flying as steep as I anticipated. I thought it was really gonna fly to the ground but turns out, it is very well behaved. Grab the rear risers and it will fly quite well in slow flight holding altitude. There was not much wind this weekend so I quickly found out that the canopy will really swoop you along the ground at about 15 mph until you flare it out. landing into a steady 10 mph wind will be very welcome instead of having to run out every landing.

I did two of the five pack jobs myself but clearly I am just WAY too slow at this point. It's taking me a solid 40 minutes to do a pack job which completely sucks when the packers can do it in easily under 10. I will be happy to pay $5.00 a pack at this point.

Oh, note to self. Even more burble hops!